Charles Yabaga Diarra grew up in a strict Muslim family in Lere, Mali, where Christians were mocked and misunderstood. His father, a headmaster and politician, ran the house like a school. As a boy, Charles fled about a hundred and fifty miles to stay with an uncle, and there he ran straight into something he had been told did not exist.
His uncle, a Christian pastor, bowed his head and prayed before the meal. Charles was stunned. "Because we are Christians, we pray before meals," the uncle explained. Charles had been taught that Christians do not pray at all. That simple prayer, in his own language, lodged in him and would not leave.
Just show me the way His father pulled him back and forced him into Quranic school, but the seed was planted. Years later, back with his uncle, tired and searching, Charles finally prayed his own prayer. "Lord, I'm really tired of seeking the truth. Just show me the way." A verse he had heard at a Vacation Bible School came back to him, and in November 1981 he gave his life to Jesus.
The cost has been real. Charles is a preacher now, displaced by Mali's conflict and facing daily pressure. But he did not go alone. Of his fourteen siblings, most now follow Jesus, and around a hundred Christians gather at his extended family events.
One uncle praying over dinner turned a whole family toward Jesus. Your quiet, ordinary faithfulness may be planting more than you know.
